The verdict capped a monthlong trial featuring sordid accounts of the sexual exploitation of girls as young as 14, told by four women who described being abused as teens in the 1990s and early 2000s at Epstein’s palatial homes in Florida, New York and New Mexico.
Jurors deliberated for five full days before finding Maxwell guilty of five of six counts. With the maximum prison terms for each charge ranging from five to 40 years in prison, Maxwell faces the likelihood of years behind bars — an outcome long sought by women who spent years fighting in civil courts to hold her accountable for her role in recruiting and grooming Epstein’s teenage victims and sometimes joining in the sexual abuse.
As the verdict was read, Maxwell was largely stoic behind a black mask. Afterward, Maxwell could be seen pouring herself a cup of water as one of her attorneys patted her on the back. She stood with her hands folded as the jury filed out, and glanced at her siblings — faithfully in attendance each day of the trial — as she herself was led from the courtroom. She did not hug her lawyers on the way out, a marked change from previous days during which Maxwell and her team were often physically affectionate with one another.
The defense had insisted Maxwell was a victim of a vindictive prosecution devised to deliver justice to women deprived of their main villain when Epstein killed himself while awaiting trial in 2019.
During the trial, prosecutors called 24 witnesses to give jurors a picture of life inside Epstein’s homes — a subject of public fascination and speculation ever since his 2006 arrest in Florida in a child sex case.
A housekeeper testified he was expected to be "blind, deaf and dumb" about the private lives of Epstein, a financier who cultivated friendships with influential politicians and business tycoons, and Maxwell, who had led a jet-setting lifestyle as the favorite child of a media mogul.
| Courtesy of Besoeker: |
| Whee! This’ll be fun — for some of us, anyway. |
Judge Preska ruled to unseal the court documents that are from a defamation lawsuit brought against Maxwell by alleged Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre that was initiated in 2015. Giuffre brought the lawsuit after Maxwell accused her of lying about being exploited and abused by Maxwell and Epstein.
Giuffre alleges that Maxwell recruited her to train as a masseuse when she was 16 years old, and was later turned into Epstein's "sex slave" from about 1999 to 2002, which included having sex with acquaintances of the convicted pedophile. Giuffre's defamation case against the former British socialite was settled in May 2017.
"Having taken a particularized view of the documents, the court concludes that each document reasonably had a tendency to effect the court's ruling and is thus a judicial document," Preska said during a telephone conference Thursday.
Related:
Ghislaine Maxwell: 2021-12-26 NYT slams judge for ordering publication to remove story about Project Veritas and to return documents it obtained recording communications between conservative group and its lawyers
Ghislaine Maxwell: 2021-12-24 Horowitz - "An Acquittal Wouldn't Surprise Me": Lawyers Ask Why Just Four Epstein Accusers Were Called During Maxwell Trial
Ghislaine Maxwell: 2021-12-14 Good Morning
Ghislaine Maxwell: 2021-12-26 NYT slams judge for ordering publication to remove story about Project Veritas and to return documents it obtained recording communications between conservative group and its lawyers
Ghislaine Maxwell: 2021-12-24 Horowitz - "An Acquittal Wouldn't Surprise Me": Lawyers Ask Why Just Four Epstein Accusers Were Called During Maxwell Trial
Ghislaine Maxwell: 2021-12-14 Good Morning
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